


Seeing Double

by bwayfan25



Category: ER (TV 1994)
Genre: A patient looks strangely familiar, Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Family, Found Family, Quite Literally, Set in the Unexpected Circumstances universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 16:56:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21497437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bwayfan25/pseuds/bwayfan25
Summary: Carter had to admit it was a little bit strange for his boss to choose to quiz him like this. She'd never been known to pose as a patientbefore,and honestly, even if she had, he'd expect a little bit better. But, then again, maybe it wasn't actually his boss after all...AU set in my "Unexpected Circumstances" universe where Kerry finds part of her family, but definitely not the part she expected to. Based off of a dream I had.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Seeing Double

Carter took the chart offered to him by the new nurse. She’d started a few days ago and, while he didn’t know her _ name _ per se, he very much wanted to.

“Alright, Ms…. Collins, is it?” he said, not looking up from the chart until he reached the bed in Exam Two. “It says here that you’re complaining about… dizziness? Looks like it’s lasted a few days?”

When he looked up, he had to fight hard to stifle a laugh. 

‘Ms. Collins’ looked very, _ very _similar to his boss. Sure, she wore a sort of baggy beige button down and her hair was considerably shorter than it had been when Carter had seen her the day before, but it was definitely her. 

“That’s right,” ‘Ms. Collins’ replied. “I, uh… I had felt a bit off for a couple days, but today when I got out of bed, I nearly passed out.”

He had to hand it to Kerry. Even the woman’s voice, though of the same timbre, sounded considerably different in accent.

“Is that so?” Carter said, noting on the chart. “And did you… Did you pass out at any point?”

“No. Never passed out,” ‘Ms. Collins’ said, shaking her head. “But my kids insisted I come.”

Carter nodded, quickly turning away to hide his smirk. The story was flimsy at best, but this line in particular just made him imagine a blonde six year old pulling Kerry by the hand as hard as she could down the ER hallway. 

(He also had a mental reference for a blonde five year old, four year old, and three year old too, because Suzie Lewis was nothing if not persistent.)

He glanced down at the chart. 

“Well, the nurse noted that your blood pressure was 127/69 which is pretty normal-”

“And it should be,” ‘Ms. Collins’ confirmed, cutting him off. “I take medicine for that.”

“Really? And what do you take?”

“Starts with an ‘L’...” ‘Ms. Collins’ thought hard for a moment and then looked up at Carter, her brow furrowed. “Lisinopril? With the, uh… With the water pill in it. Hydro- Hydro-something.”

“Hydrochlorothiazide?” Carter asked.

“Yeah. That one.”

“Okay.” Carter noted this on the chart as well. “And any chance you remember the dose you’re on?”

“Not a clue.”

“Alright,” Carter said, exhaling. He took a step back. “Why don’t you stand up for me then?”

‘Ms. Collins’ did as she was asked. Once she was up, she blinked hard. 

“How do you feel?” 

“Little bit of a… Little dizzy,” ‘Ms. Collins’ informed him. “But not as bad as this morning.”

Carter nodded and jotted another note.

He wanted so much to ask what he did to earn a test like this, but then a thought occurred to him: Perhaps, he didn’t _ have _ to ask. 

For even as stubborn as Kerry Weaver was, there was one thing he could ask to do that would make her admit it on her own.

But even just the thought made him wince slightly, because, though he was sure it would make her give in, it also wasn’t exactly the nicest thing to ask of her.

“Alright,” he said slowly, looking right at her to gauge her reaction to his next words. “Did you feel the same dizziness when you walked in this morning?”

‘Ms. Collins’ shook her head.

“No. Just when I stood up.”

“Okay.” Carter heaved a sigh and grimaced involuntarily. “As… As much as I hate to ask this, can you walk to the door and back for me?”

“I just told you I didn’t have a problem when I was walking,” ‘Ms. Collins’ said in a _ very _ familiar tone. “And what do you mean by ‘As much as you hate to ask.’”

“Will you just do it for me please?” Carter asked in a firmer voice. _ God _, she was stubborn.

‘Ms. Collins’ observed him for a second, frowning, and then shrugged. 

He took a step back as she did what she was asked. And from the first steps she took, he could feel the color drain from his face. 

“That enough?” she asked as she reached the bed again. “Or you want more?”

Carter blinked for a moment and then shook his head quickly. 

“No, that’s good, that’s good,” he said equally as quickly. “Go ahead and have a-a seat. I’m gonna have the nurse draw some… draw some blood and, um, I’m gonna run a couple tests. Oh! And I’m gonna step out for a moment to consult with another doctor. 

Ms. Collins nodded and sat back down on the bed, kicking her feet up with ease. 

Carter walked out of the room quickly, fighting every instinct to take off sprinting. He was so focused on this that he nearly decapitated the new nurse with the chart as he shot out the door. Once he had (carefully) handed it to her, he blurted an apology and his instructions for Ms. Collins’ tests as he took off towards the Admit Desk.

Kerry was not there as he expected, but the next best thing was.

“Susan!”

“Carter!” Susan replied in a tone of surprise like his (though she did not yet have any reason to _ be _ surprised). “What’s up?”

“Is Kerry working today?”

“Mm-hmm. She’s in a trauma with… Malucci, I think. 

“Are you _ sure? _” Carter asked urgently. 

“Am I _ sure _ ?” Susan looked at him for a moment and then leaned over the counter to grab under his chin and turn his head in the direction of the trauma rooms. “Carter, the room is _ see-through _ . _ Of course _, I’m sure.”

And, sure enough, Carter could easily make out the figure of the Chief of Emergency Services giving orders in the trauma down the hall. Though he couldn’t quite tell what color shirt she was wearing underneath the yellow trauma gown, he knew it wasn’t beige. And her red hair was pulled back into the same tiny ponytail she had when he’d seen her yesterday.

But instead of this being at all comforting, it only made him panic even more. 

“Holy shit,” he said, his voice muffled as he ran his fingers over his face. “Holy _ shit _.”

“I don’t know why you’re so _ surprised, _” Susan said, frowning. “It’s not like she really likes anyone else to do it… Except me. But that’s only because I’m special.”

It wasn’t clear whether Carter didn’t hear the last part or was choosing to ignore it. He just kept looking from the trauma room to the door of the exam room and back, his mouth working wordlessly. 

Before Susan could ask him what was wrong, he shook his head and looked right at her.

“You need to come with me.”

“Carter, I have a lot of patients... and very little of it with you.”

When Carter ignored the joke (which Susan had been very proud to think of off the top of her head, thank you very much), she just rolled her eyes and followed him.

He stopped outside of the open door to the exam room. When she gave him a _ What gives? _ look, he just nodded into the room. Susan frowned and then peered inside. 

In an instant, her mouth fell open and her eyes bugged.

She straightened up and looked at Carter before glancing inside again. This time, she nearly made eye contact with the patient in question before straightening up. 

“But that’s.. How the hell-?”

“I thought it was a test. Not that she- Not that she’d ever _ done _ this before, but I thought maybe I’d screwed up and crossed some line or something.” Carter made a sound halfway between an exhale and a chuckle. “And when I was asking her questions, I thought she was- I mean, I thought _ Kerry _ was, you know… playing dumb. But then I tried to get her to- And then I asked her to... walk across the room.”

Susan didn’t comment, but rather just bit her lip.

“She’s never... _ mentioned _anything about a-a.... Has she?” Carter asked, his brow rising.

Susan started to reply, but then stopped herself 

Her eyes widened even more (if that was possible). Her hands flew to her mouth.

“_ She wouldn’t know _,” Susan said in a voice barely more than a whisper. “She was adopted, remember?”

Carter and Susan stared at each other for a long moment.

“So, what do we-” Carter glanced in the room again. “So, what do we do?”

“Well, we have to- to tell her, right?” Susan asked, unsure if she’d meant the question to be rhetorical or not. “I mean… She has to know.”

At the sound of the trauma room doors opening, Susan looked back over her shoulder. They were pushing the gurney out and turning it down the hallway in the direction of the elevators. 

Susan looked back at Carter, still wide-eyed, and took a deep breath.

“Okay. It looks like they’re done,” Susan said, closing her eyes. “So, I’ll go… I’ll go get her and you… You know. Tend to your patient.”

Susan nodded him inside before turning on her heel in the direction of the trauma room. 

Kerry had exited by now. A nurse held her crutch while she shrugged off her bloody trauma gown and removed her goggles.

“_ Yes _, I mean every hour,” she called to someone down the hallway as she threaded her arm back through the crutch. “And if Robert has a problem with that, he knows where to find me.”

Kerry turned to start back towards the desk only to be surprised to find Susan standing in her way.

“Oh. Hi,” she greeted before her brow furrowed at the look on Susan’s face. “What’s wrong?”

Susan opened her mouth to speak and then closed it. 

“Is everything okay?” Kerry asked, with even more concern in her voice. “Did something happen? Are the police here? You know you have permission to pull me out when that happens-”

“No, it’s-” Susan took a deep breath. “Come with me.”

“Can I go to the bathroom first?”

“No,” Susan replied, taking her free hand. “Come on.”

Kerry, taken aback by the fact that Susan actually _ denied _her request, was too stunned to argue and let herself be led down the hall. 

She had just managed to get herself together enough to reprimand her wife, when Susan suddenly stopped and turned to face her. 

“Susan, are you okay?” Kerry asked sincerely, her concern now full-fledged worry. “You’re scaring me. What happened?”

“You… You need to see Carter’s patient.”

“Why? What did he do?”

“He didn’t- You just need to look.” But right as Kerry made to lean forward to look into the room, Susan laid an arm on hers. Kerry looked up to find Susan looking her dead in the eye. “But you need to brace yourself.”

Given that whatever situation they were in seemed too tense to quip about how she was _ always _braced thanks to her choice of mobility aid, Kerry just nodded and then looked into the room. 

She flinched backwards so hard that Susan had to catch her by the arm before she lost her footing. 

“But-but-but… That’s...Th-that’s-”

Kerry’s voice cut out as the breath in her chest seemed to disappear.

She tried to make up for this by breathing harder, which only made her heart race more. She started to feel dizzy (not unlike how her newly-discovered twin sister had felt this morning that spurred her visit to County).

“But how-” Kerry looked up at Susan in surprise. “What-what-what… Wh-what do I do?”

Susan shrugged, grimacing. 

“I don’t… know?” 

She tried to think of a better answer than this, but the part of her brain not preoccupied by the earth-shattering information they’d just learned was too busy making sure that Kerry didn’t faint. 

Kerry didn’t notice, though, as she was still looking back and forth between the patient in the room and Susan. 

“What-what do I-” Kerry’s mouth hung open in shock as she looked at Susan again. “But what do I _ do? _”

“You could…” Susan tried to force her brain into overdrive. “You could talk to her?”

“But what would I say?” Kerry asked, looking back towards the door (but carefully out of sight of Ms. Collins).

“I’m-I’m not really the person to ask,” Susan said before she could stop herself. “But… Y-you could probably start with the fact that you have the same face?”

Kerry’s hand hovered near her mouth as if she was going to chew her nails. She stared at the top button of Susan’s lab coat for a moment before looking back up at Susan. 

“I think I need to sit down.”

Where forcing her brain to engage failed, this was enough to get Susan back into gear. 

She nodded before squeezing Kerry’s arm for a moment. Then, she stepped forward to peek into the next room. As it was empty, she waved Kerry inside. 

Susan had no sooner shut the door than Kerry all but collapsed onto the bed. She hadn’t even bothered to remove her crutch from her arm and didn’t seem to notice when Susan did it for her. 

“I-I-I-” Kerry covered her mouth with her hand. “I’d imagined what it would- what it would be like to meet… to meet my birth parents or-or-or even a sibling… But-but never…”

Her words trailed off as Susan took a seat next to her on the bed and wrapped an arm around her. 

Usually when she did this, Kerry was crying or was about to. But in this case, she was in so much shock, she didn’t even lay her head on Susan’s shoulder. 

Silence fell around them for a long time. 

Susan wanted nothing more than to be comforting, to say the right thing, but… But what did you say to this?

The best she could hope for was an attempt at getting Kerry to voice her feelings without Susan needing to guess.

“So, obviously this is overwhelming,” Susan started slowly, with resulted in Kerry sitting up. “And you every right to be… freaked out. But could you… How do you feel?”

Kerry didn’t answer. 

This felt like a bad dream. Like some kind of nightmare her old counselor would have wanted her to reflect on or would have led to invasive yet informative questions about family that would have given insight into her psyche.

But if she _ and _ Susan _ and _ Carter could see this woman, then surely this wasn’t a dream.

“What’s… What’s her name?” Kerry asked in tinier voice than Susan had ever heard her use.

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask Carter.”

Kerry nodded slightly, but her gaze was fixed on the floor ahead of her. 

Susan rubbed a reassuring hand across her back. But instead of being comforting like she’d hoped, it seemed to prompt Kerry to look even _ more _terrified.

“Ker? Are you okay?” she asked quietly. “You look scared. Can you tell me why? Is… Is there something specific or are you just still taking it in?”

Susan had a feeling that it was something specific, but she wouldn’t have been able to put her finger on it. At least, not until she heard what Kerry said next.

“Is she… like me?”

Susan had always been a little surprised to learn that Kerry had been the one bullied in high school, mostly because she just found it so hard to imagine the authoritative-edging-on-abrasive woman she loved too timid or embarrassed to fight back. But it was the rare times like this that she felt she could see through the facade of years and practice to that girl who’d been teased. 

Susan took a deep breath, figuring out what to say next. 

“Carter said he thought it was you trying to quiz him or something. But… But he said he figured it out when he asked her to walk for him and…” Susan sighed. “She didn’t have a limp.”

Kerry’s chest tightened even though part of her felt she’d known the answer. 

“But that doesn’t she _ hasn’t _ had one, right?” Susan offered hopefully. “I mean… You’ve said before that it’s possible you’ll have to get your hip replaced at some point and that that would mean you didn’t need the crutch anymore… And there’s surgeries and treatments- I mean _ hell _. We went through some of that with Charlie the year before last-”

When Kerry flinched involuntarily at the mention of the six months Charlie had worn the Pavlik harness in an attempt to prevent her hip from dislocating like it had done at birth, Susan bit her lip.

“Sorry,” she muttered quietly. “That wasn’t helpful, was it?”

But to her surprise, Kerry inhaled deeply and nodded.

“No, it was. It is.” She took another deep breath and looked at Susan. “I want to meet her.”

They made their way down the hall, arriving at the door just as Carter was exiting it.

“Is she still in there?” Susan asked urgently as they neared him. 

“Oh yeah,” he said, nodding. “Nearly fainted when she stood up again, so I got her on a monitor.”

“Oh good. She’s tethered. That means she can’t run away,” Susan remarked. When Carter and Kerry both frowned at her, she added, “Not that it’s good she’s on a monitor. Just good that- You know what I mean.”

She looked at Carter.

“Are there any other patients in there?” At Carter’s replying shake of the head, Susan nodded. “Alright. Go tell whatever clerk’s on right now not to put anyone else in here.”

Carter nodded and set off to complete his task as Susan turned to Kerry, readying for hers. 

“Do you want me to go in first and introduce you?” she offered. “Or do you want to do it?”

“You go first,” Kerry replied almost automatically. 

Susan nodded and inhaled, steeling herself. But even that mental preparation did little to prepare her for how weird this was going to be. 

The woman, who Carter had identified as a ‘Ms. Collins,’ glanced at her before turning back to the magazine someone had left on the table next to her bed. 

_ God _, this was weird. 

Perhaps she’d gotten too used to Kerry being at least her friend (if not ardently head over heels in love with her), but the cursory glance stung. Because even though consciously she knew this _ wasn’t _ Kerry, she looked exactly like her and the way her eyes passed over her without seeing her threw Susan painfully back into memories of their first year working together. 

“Do you need something?” Ms. Collins asked. 

The accent was wrong (far too much Midwest and not enough Minnesota), but the tone was spot on. 

“I… Yes,” Susan said, nodding. She wasn’t sure what to say next, so she settled on,“I think you need to meet one of our doctors.”

Ms. Collins frowned. 

“I already have a doctor. That young man who just left.”

“This wouldn’t necessarily be in terms of your treatment. I just think you need to meet them.”

Ms. Collins considered it for a moment, and then shrugged, closing her magazine.

“Sure. Send him in.”

“Actually, it’s a _ her _.”

Ms. Collins observed Susan for a moment, frowning in a very Kerry-like way. Then, she shook her head. 

“Look, lady, I’m flattered, but I don’t like w-”

“Oh, no, no,no,no,no,no,no,” Susan said, shaking her own head vigorously. “That’s not what I meant… But _ really? _”

At Ms. Collins’ exasperated expression, Susan tried to wave it away.

“Nevermind. It’s just…” 

She took a few steps towards the door in order to wave Kerry in. But, she couldn’t look at the woman’s clothes, hair, and general presentation and stop herself from muttering another _ “Really?!” _ under her breath.

Before she reached the door, Susan stopped and turned back. 

“What’s your name?”

“Tamara,” the woman responded. 

“Right. So, it’s… It’s a bit too weird to put into words and you probably wouldn’t believe me anyways, so I’m just going to-”

“Get on with it,” Tamara ordered.

Susan immediately turned back for the door without question, concerned (but honestly not really _ surprised) _ how, even in the wrong accent, that tone of Kerry(/Tamara)’s voice had _ that _ much control over her.

“Alright. Tamara, I’d like you to meet Kerry,” Susan said, ushering a hesitant Kerry inside the door. “And Kerry, meet Tamara.”

Tamara, who had been eyeing Susan with concern, looked up at Kerry and, though she was sitting down, had almost the same reaction. 

“_ Sweet Jesus _.”

Kerry, who’d already had a few minutes to adjust to the idea of having an identical twin sister she’d never known about, just gave a small wave.

“Holy-” Tamara looked Kerry up and down several times. “Holy hell.”

“So, you didn’t know about this either?” Susan asked, the question leaving her mouth before she could stop it. 

“Not at all,” Tamara said, shaking her head. 

She made to get up, but both Susan and Kerry raised hands to stop her, recalling Carter’s words about Tamara’s condition.

She didn’t rise, but she didn’t lie back down either. 

“I’m… As Susan said, I’m… I’m Kerry,” Kerry began slowly. “Um… Kerry Weaver. And I expect we’ve probably met at some point.”

“Yeah. Probably,” Tamara agreed. “I’m Tamara Collins. But Collins was my married name. My maiden name is Fisher.”

For a moment, they all exchanged glances with each other, trying to figure out who went next. 

“Do you wanna, I don’t know, have a seat? So, we can… talk?” Tamara offered, gesturing to the foot of the bed.

Kerry nodded and started forward towards the bed. Susan took a seat on the bed opposite them. 

For a second, the two women just looked at each other, as if processing the realization again up close.

Then, they both started to speak at the same time, before cutting themselves off at the same moment, and then simultaneously offering the other to go first. Then, after an additional moment of silence, Kerry took the lead.

“Where are you from?”

“St. Louis, but I live outside Milwaukee now. I’m just here visiting,” Tamara replied. “You?”

“Um… A few places,but mostly Minnesota,” Kerry answered slowly. “Minneapolis, to be specific. Have you… ever been?”

“No,” Tamara replied with a bit of a scoff. “No offense, but I never really saw the point in going to Minnesota.”

“I never saw the point in going to St. Louis.”

They shared a chuckle over this. Susan watched them both, eyes flicking back and forth between them, as the question they’d all been waiting for was asked. 

“So,” Kerry began hesitantly, “tell me about your family.”

Tamara paused. 

“Well, I’m the youngest. I’ve got three older brothers.”

“Three?”

“Yeah. My mother always said she thought I was going to be a boy too,” Tamara remarked. But the little smile that crept onto her face at this immediately faltered as she realized the new meaning behind the anecdote. “I guess… I guess that means she thought _ you _ were going to be a boy too?”

But that wasn’t Kerry’s main concern. 

“So, you were… _ born _ into your family?”

Tamara sighed and then nodded.

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “So, I take it you weren’t?”

Kerry shook her head. 

“No. I was adopted.” 

Tamara stared, trying to figure out what she could say that wouldn’t make any of it sound worse than it already did. 

“I… I didn’t know about a twin or anything. My-my mom never said anything,” she said quickly. Then, she looked from Kerry to Susan. “Is it… Is it possible to… to expect one and get two?”

Kerry’s mumbling wasn’t much answer, so Susan took a chance. 

“It’s very rare, but it can happen.” Susan sighed. When she spoke, she did so to Tamara though her focus turned to Kerry. “Plus. It as also the sixties. Technology wasn’t as advanced.... That is assuming that your birthdate is _ also _ April 15, 1961.”

Tamara nodded and then she too looked back at Kerry. Kerry, in turn, stared at the wall, trying to figure out what she wanted to know or do next (apart from cry). 

She did this for a long moment before looking back at Tamara.

“You wouldn’t… You wouldn’t have any pictures of-of your family, would you?”

“Of my parents? ” Tamara frowned. “I’ve got a lot of my kids. I know that, but I’m not sure about the family. Hold on.”

She looked around for a moment before spotting her purse near the foot of the bed. She muttered something to Kerry, who leaned over to grab it, nearly upsetting her crutch in the process.

“Can I ask...” Tamara said, taking the purse from Kerry. “Why do you… What’s that for?”

She nodded at the crutch. 

Susan bristled on Kerry’s behalf. Kerry had grown comfortable enough in the past few years to talk about it with some of her closer friends/colleagues and even to joke about it on rare occasions (namely her going along with Susan’s trying to convince Dave Malucci that her use of it was due to a knife fight gone wrong), but something about Tamara asking in that vague almost put off way that Kerry always took personally while searching for a picture of the family that it appeared had given Kerry up felt… different. 

“Congenital hip dysplasia. Or at least, that’s what they called it when I was young. It’s called something else now… Developmental dysplasia of the hip.” As Kerry answered, she seemed to pull the crutch closer to her. “In common parlance, a birth defect.”

“So, you’ve had it since you were born?”

Kerry nodded. 

“Yes. One of my… One of my hips wasn’t formed properly in utero.” She looked at Tamara, wincing even before she asked the question. “You… don’t have it?”

“Not that I’ve ever known.” 

She pulled her wallet out of the bag and began shuffling through pictures. It took a couple of seconds, but then she slipped one out.

“Here. It’s a bit faded, but it’s me, my parents, and my brothers.”

Susan watched Kerry’s reaction closely. But all she did was raise her eyebrows slightly at the photo and then nod. 

When she tried to hand it back to Tamara, Tamara shook her head. 

“You can keep it… If you want it, that is.”

Kerry looked at the photo again and then nodded before muttering a word of thanks and setting it aside. 

“Did you say you have kids too?” Kerry asked, her tone now curious and not at all the dejected Susan and Tamara had expected.

“Uh… Yeah. Four of ‘em. Three boys and a girl. Same as-” She cut herself off from finishing the sentence. “I’ve got pictures of them. Do you want to see?”

Kerry nodded and Tamara slipped a few more pictures out of her wallet. She had handed Kerry a few and still had more left, so she offered one to Susan as well. 

“And what about you? You got any kids?”

“I’ve got two,” Kerry answered as she flipped through the pictures. “Both were adopted. Suzie is.. six and a half and Charlie - short for Charlotte - is one and a half.”

Though there was no doubt in the world that Suzie and Charlie Lewis were her children and that she adored them with every ounce of her being, Kerry had always wondered what her biological children would look like. And looking at the photographs of her three biological nephews and niece gave her at least a little inkling of what they’d be. 

(And though that inkling was nice, it still didn’t compare to her girls.)

“How old are they?” Susan asked, squinting to try and see detail in the picture in her hand. 

“Oldest one will be twenty-two next March,” Tamara answered, accepting the pictures back from Kerry and then Susan. “The others are nineteen, seventeen, and sixteen.”

Kerry, who knew intimately well how old children those ages would have made Tamara when they were born, couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows.

“Yeah. Their dad was my high school sweetheart and he, uh, wasn’t much for protection,” Tamara said, seeing her newly-found sister’s reaction. A tinge of red colored her cheeks. “I got pregnant with Adam the night we graduated. The kids’ dad and I hung on through three more all the way until about five years ago.”

“And you got divorced?” Kerry asked. 

“Yep. He’s still a good dad. Lives nearby and helps out and all that, but we weren’t happy together anymore.” Tamara shrugged. “What about you?”

“Actually, I _ also _ married my… Well, I wouldn’t call him my ‘high-school sweetheart,’ since we weren’t really sweethearts in high school, but he was my best friend. And we split up several years ago as well.”

“Drifted apart?”

“Some,” Kerry said with a shrug of acknowledgement. “But mostly our careers were taking different paths. He was surgeon and got offered a prestigious fellowship out in Colorado. And when we sat down to have the talk about what would happen next, he ended up… coming out to me.”

Both Kerry and Susan immediately looked at Tamara to gauge her reaction. And, for a moment, there wasn’t one. 

But then, to both their reliefs, she chuckled.

“So, he was gay?” When Kerry nodded, Tamara commented, “Well, I guess you know it wasn’t _ you. _”

Kerry chuckled as well.

“That’s actually exactly what I thought when he said it,” Kerry admitted. “Though a… A few years later, I realized it was, let’s say, it wasn’t _ him _ either.”

This took Tamara another second.

“So, you’re gay too?”

The question had gotten considerably easier to answer the longer she’d been out, but it still at times took her back. 

She nodded. 

Tamara considered this a bit longer than she had the news of Kerry’s ex-husband (who she had actually just spoken to recently and who was excited to tell her about introducing his first partner to his parents, who took his coming out well so long as he promised to bring home a nice _ Jewish _ boy).

The moment seemed to go on so long that Susan and Kerry both had begun to think this wasn’t going to end as well as they’d hoped. But then Tamara shrugged.

“Okay then. So, if you’ve got kids, do you have a-a woman you’re with then?” she asked, albeit in a far more unsure voice than before.

Kerry looked at Susan, more out of instinct than actually asking her to answer. But, nevertheless, she waved slightly.

“Yeah. That would be me.”

“Oh,” Tamara said, elongating the vowel nodding. “So… Obviously this is a little weird for _ us _ . This must be _ really _ weird for you.”

Susan took a deep breath and smiled.

“In more ways than one.”

They all chuckled at this as Carter poked his head in from the hall.

“Hey. Sorry to interrupt,” he said quickly. “But I need to talk to Ms. Collins.”

“You can come in,” Tamara and Kerry both said at the exact same time. 

They exchanged (impressed) glances before looking back to Carter. 

“I’ve got your EKG results,” he said, motioning to the chart. “I’d like to admit you for observation, Ms. Collins, but your insurance won’t authorize it here, so we’re going to have to transfer you.”

Tamara looked from Carter to Kerry, who had raised a hand for Tamara’s chart. 

“What does that mean?”

“It means that we have to transfer you to a different hospital,” Carter replied.

But Tamara shook her head. 

“I meant the results.” She looked at Kerry, who was now reading the EKG. “What is it?”

“It’s called an electrocardiogram or EKG,” Kerry explained. “It looks like you’ve got a minor arrhythmia. In other words, your heart beats so fast that it skips beats and feels like it’s been fluttering. It’s why you’ve been feeling so dizzy.”

Kerry handed the chart back to Carter. 

“Who are we sending her to?”

“Mercy,” Carter replied. “It’s already in motion.”

“Then, make sure the desk knows I want to be updated.”

Carter nodded and then excused himself from the room. He waved to the three ladies inside before shutting the door behind him. 

Tamara watched him for a second, before shaking her head and looking back at Kerry.

“So, even with… I mean, you ended up a doctor in a big hospital in the city.... I guess you did pretty well for yourself.”

“She doesn’t just work here. She’s in charge,” Susan added with a wink in Kerry’s direction.

“Of the whole hospital?” 

“No, no. _ God _, could you imagine?” Susan chuckled but sobered immediately upon seeing the look on Kerry’s face. “No. Just the ER. But still.”

“Yeah. Better than working in a warehouse in Wisconsin,” Tamara remarked. “Though, I really like doing that so, it’s good with me.”

They shared a chuckle again before a group of ER staff came in to begin transferring Tamara over to Mercy Hospital. Several jolted in surprise, convinced they were seeing double. 

Before they whisked her off, Kerry and Tamara managed to exchange phone numbers and email addresses in order to keep in touch. And soon, the flurry of activity died down as quickly as it had begun, leaving just Susan and Kerry alone in the exam room. 

They sat in comfortable silence for a long while before Susan sighed. 

“So… How do you feel?” she asked slowly, her brow furrowing for the first time in a good part of the conversation.

Kerry considered the question for a moment. 

“Okay. Better… Better than I expected to.” Kerry heaved a large sigh. “I’m sure it’s all going to hit me more later, but…”

“Really?” Susan crossed the bed to take a seat next to Kerry. “Because I was sure that the whole ‘expecting one and getting two’ part was going to throw you.”

“It...did. For a second,” Kerry admitted. “Until she showed me this.”

She picked up the photograph of the Fisher family that Tamara had given her and handed it to Susan, whose eyebrows flew up.

“_ Oh _,” she said, turning her head to look at Kerry. “There’s no way in hell she’s related to them.”

“Not even a little bit,” Kerry said, peering at the photo again over Susan’s shoulder. “At least I looked a _ little _bit like my parents. If you squinted… without glasses on.”

They both laughed at this.

“Yeah,” Susan said, still chuckling. “I’m pretty sure if I was born the short redhead in a family of tall, muscular blondes, I’d’ve assumed I was adopted from day one.”

“_ Average _redhead.”

“Seriously?” 

“If she is my height, then she’s 5’4 which is _ average _,” Kerry said firmly. “I suffered for that average.”

Susan rolled her eyes as Kerry slipped her hand into Susan’s. 

“Thank you for being with me,” she said softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Susan said, completing the statement by kissing Kerry on the cheek.

She felt Kerry grin (as she always did), but this time the grin curled into a smirk. 

“What?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, but given that she already brought it up…” Kerry grinned. “Was this like some weird fantasy for you?”

“Are you kidding me? Absolutely not. One of you is enough,” Susan said with a scoff. “More than enough, actually. Typically too much.”

Kerry smiled even broader. 

“Really?”

Susan exhaled. 

“Her voice wasn’t right. And besides… she’s straight. I can’t do much with that,” Susan said, giving in. Then, she narrowed her eyes in suspicion and looked at Kerry. “Which… Honestly surprised me? Because did she or did she not look butcher than you?”

“That’s _ exactly _what I thought. Like if you put us next to each other, you wouldn’t be able to tell that I was the lesbian.”

Susan smiled and wrapped her arm around Kerry’s shoulder, grateful for the way she relaxed into her comfort. 

“You know what this makes me realize?” Susan thought aloud.

“What?”

“That you should cut your hair again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I hope this finds you well. So, I had a really weird dream this morning where basically Carter discovers that Kerry has an identical twin sister. In the dream, I remember distinctly that he didn't believe it was a different person at first, only to panic and go grab Susan. Who, of course, also sort of panics. 
> 
> I've been working very intensely on my novel (which is loosely based off of Unexpected Circumstances) a lot lately, but I knew that if I didn't get this out of my head, my brain wouldn't let me work on that until either I did or the inspiration passed. 
> 
> I've gotta say, this is a bit of an out there concept for me, so I hope I did it at least a _little_ bit of justice. Or, at least, hopefully it made a little bit of sense. 
> 
> Anyways, my "short" fic took me several hours to write, so I really need to go to bed. Thank you for reading!


End file.
